Chapter 5 - THE SECOND SET OF PAPERS
Three days after Elias’s funeral, Mara returned home to find her office drawer open.
Nothing obvious missing.
No broken window.
No alarm.
Then she noticed the safe.
Unlocked.
Inside, Elias’s personal notebook was gone.
She called police.
Then Caleb.
Then North River.
Grant’s attorney denied involvement immediately.
Victor did not answer.
The security system showed entry at 2:13 p.m.
Authorized code.
ELIAS-GUEST-04.
Mara had never used that code.
Who had it?
Elias once created guest codes for family.
Grant had one.
Victor had one.
But the system log stored only code use, not identity.
Then doorbell footage showed a black sedan.
Plate partially visible.
Registered to:
Hale Legal Services.
Victor.
Police interviewed him.
He admitted entering.
His explanation:
He believed company legal files might be stored in Elias’s home office and needed preservation.
Without Mara’s permission.
After Elias’s death.
Using an old guest code.
He claimed he took only company-owned documents.
Mara asked:
“Did you take the notebook?”
Victor said:
“No.”
Then the notebook appeared two days later.
Courier envelope.
No return address.
Inside, one page had been torn out.
Elias wrote dates in the margins.
The missing page fell between entries about Grant, Helixor, and “V.H.”
Caleb hired a forensic document examiner to study indentation marks on the next page.
The recovered impression was incomplete.
But three lines were readable:
Victor has old draft.
Grant thinks contingency still valid.
If they know I changed it before—
The rest vanished.
Mara stared.
May you like
“Before what?”
Nobody knew.
